Places ckoohle Wants to Go

This church houses the tomb—but not the remains—of St. Nicholas, the likely progenitor to Santa Claus.

The world's first ice hotel is still one of the most elaborate and beautiful.

A man throwing a giant severed hand towers over Antwerp’s main square.

An uninhabited village that preserves and documents rural architecture and an endangered way of life.

This quiet neighborhood is also home to a 700-ton rock transported by the last Ice Age.

A commemorative mural in this tiny Ballard park honors the neighborhood's rich Scandinavian ties, particularly with Seattle's Norwegian sister city Bergen.

Every summer West Seattle experiences a housing bloom.

This 22-acre botanical garden is home to the largest collection of rhododendrons in the world.

An allegedly haunted mansion with a tragic, tawdry past.

A young botanist's horticultural vision realized through a lifetime of planting, tending, and collecting seeds.

A rotting tree in the middle of Seattle doubles as an elaborately-controlled art piece.

Spanning an elevation of 160 feet and containing 388 steps, this is Seattle's longest staircase.

An enclosed rotunda at the Henry Art Gallery in which viewers can look up and see the uninterrupted sky.

This edible park is open to any and all foragers.

A beautiful final resting place for some of the noteworthy deceased.

A huge musical sculpture and other art installations on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration grounds.

A 100-year-old purveyor of curiosities, curios, and kitsch featuring mummies, shrunken heads, and a Fiji Mermaid.

An active seahorse farm is currently saving Tasmania's handfish from extinction.

Tall columns of volcanic basalt make up this improbable-seeming rock formation.

Scientists use one of the saltiest bodies of water on Earth as a terrestrial base for studying water on Mars.

One of the most extreme deserts in the world, these snow-free valleys harbor life, despite the hostile environment.

An ice field known for harboring an infamous Martian meteorite turned out to contain the oldest air on Earth.

The traditional houses along the coast of this charming Japanese fishing village allow people to sleep above the sea.

A smoky doorway in Dakar leads to one of the city’s great communal eating experiences.